consolidation, and is seeking to interest their pupils in
attending high schools through athletic meets, play festivals, and
similar assemblages of all the schools of the community, which thus
create a natural bond of interest and common enthusiasm. The principal
of the high school at Oxford, N. Y., recently organized a
public-speaking contest of representatives of all the country schools in
his supervisory district, in connection with the annual play festival
which he had established several years before. This proved to be a huge
success and gave the boys and girls from the district schools new
confidence in their ability of self-expression. One of the greatest
needs which farmers' organizations are to-day feeling is their lack of
leaders who can speak for them effectively at public gatherings and
before legislative hearings in competition with men who make their
living by talking. Such contests, particularly when the topics discussed
deal with affairs of country life with which the children are acquainted
and in which they are vitally interested, as was the case with the one
at Oxford and to which much of its success was attributed, are therefore
of great value and may well be substituted for the academic debates so
often heard on subjects quite foreign to the child's life and beyond his
real comprehension.

In many places new school buildings are being constructed with an
auditorium, which may be used as a gymnasium, library room, dining room,
etc., so that they may serve as social centers for the community. Where
the community is not large enough to afford a separate community house
this is frequently the best and most economical means of meeting this
need. This will be discussed further in considering community buildings.

Numerous rural high schools are conducting lyceum and entertainment
courses, and some are operating motion-picture shows on Saturday nights.
Where no other organization is better adapted for taking the
responsibility of furnishing high-class entertainment to the community,
this is a useful service. School orchestras and bands, choruses, and
dramatic clubs are also valuable additions to the community life.

The successful community school will not center all of its activities in
its own building, but it will take some of its talent to the country
schools for local athletic and play contests, dramatic or musical
entertainments, etc., and thus magnify the importance of the local
school in the nei